How I killed Super TV boss – Chidinma confesses in court
On Tuesday, October 11, a video showing Chidinma Ojukwu confessing to k!lling Usifo Michael Ataga, the CEO of Super TV, by herself was shown at a Lagos High Court proceeding at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS).
The main suspect in Ataga’s murder is Miss Chidinma Ojukwu, a 300-level mass communication student at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Ataga could be seen in the footage lying on the ground with his hands outstretched while donning a white singlet and blood-stained boxers. He had blood on the floor to his right, and his head was close to the wall.
Large black stains could also be seen on the floor, pillow, and duvet cover.
During an interrogation by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba, Chidinma Ojukwu described how she first spoke to Ataga. She said she met Ataga through a friend, and the two struck up a conversation.
He asked her to find a location for them to stay on June 13, 2021, so she found the short-let apartment where they consumed food, alcohol, drugs, and he was killed.
She said;
“After I got the place on Sunday, we were smoking loud, drinking, watching movies and then I went to get food. The drug we were taking got finished and I ordered another one and went downstairs to get it from the delivery guy in the morning; that was on June 14, 2021.
“Then on Tuesday, we drank and smoked loud. I added Rophynol to his drink and we had s3x. I was on the bed and he was on the chair. Then later he started disturbing me for more s3x. I was tired and after struggling with him, he had his way and still wanted more.
“He wanted it, he was no longer himself and I thought he was no more interested in s3x, only for him to return to the bed to ask for more s3x.I pushed him away, which resulted in him hitting his head against a stool that had a glass. He had a cut on his leg and he became weak.
“I tied his hands with a handkerchief. His blood was out and I was scared. I just packed everything, my clothes were also stained with blood, I just packed my things and left.
“I took the knife and handkerchief, and when I got home, I threw the knife and handkerchief away.
Michael was a friend. I didn’t know him that deeply, and we didn’t talk regularly,” she said in the video clip.
When she was asked in the video if she was assisted in killing the deceased, Ojukwu said, “There was nobody that assisted me, I did it alone.”
When asked why she didn’t call for help, she said, ”Obviously I was scared, that was why I left.”
She said that there was no motive for killing Ataga.
In the video, the ninth prosecution witness in the murder trial, DSP Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigating Department, Panti Yaba, was seen in interrogating Ojukwu at Panti.
He also asked her why she was using a foreign phone number and the motive behind her hiding her phone number.
Ojukwu said that she already had a foreign number registered on social media which she used to chat with people.
Asked why the owner of the service apartment didn’t know her identity, she said, “She didn’t ask for my identification.
“If she had said that the place was not available I would have left for another place.”
Ojukwu responded to a question in the video about why she used Mary Johnson to open a bank account. She said that she was attempting to open an account number which got blocked.
On an Identification card she procured, Ojukwu said, “It was someone that did it and you can’t see his face.
“I don’t know the contact of the person. I was just going through the internet and I saw a contact to call.”
She also said in the video that she opened a domiciliary account for depositing dollars.
At this point, prosecution counsel, Adenike Oluwafemi, reminded the witness of his evidence on May 10, when he said that he recovered some items from the defendant’s house.
Bamidele responded by listing the things he allegedly recovered from Ojukwu’s house.
He told Justice Yetunde Adesanya that he recovered a small pink purse containing two syringes, eight pieces of Rophynol tablets, two sanitary pads, a small perfume, jewelry, an iPhone belonging to first defendant, a notebook, a diary, and a HP laptop.
The witness listed the other items to including an identity card with the name: Ojukwu Chidinma Adora; Ataga’s driver’s licence, Ojukwu’s United Bank for Africa automated teller machine card and Super net identity card in Ataga’s name.
Other items, according to the witness, are three other cards that had the deceased’s name and six blank complimentary cards.
After identifying the items, Oluwafemi prayed the court to admit them in evidence.
However, Ojukwu’s counsel, Mr C.C. Ezebube, objected to the admissibility of the items.
Ezebube said that the custody of the items was not specified before the court – from the moment of recovery to that of tendering them before the court.
He said, “Some of the items could have been picked from anywhere, there is no originality as these items can be reproduced from anywhere.
Quadri’s counsel, Mr Babatunde Busari, and Egbuchu’s counsel, F.O. Ilesunmi, did not object to the tendering of the items in evidence.
In a ruling, the judge dismissed the objection and admitted the items in evidence.
Earlier, the witness showed the court some pictures of the apartment where Ataga was allegedly murdered.
The three defendants were arraigned on October 12, 2021, on a nine-count charge brought against them by Lagos State Government.
Ojukwu and Quadri are facing the first to eight counts bordering on conspiracy, murder, stabbing, forgery, making of bank statements, and stealing.
The third defendant, Egbuchu, is facing the ninth count – stealing of an iPhone 7 belonging to Ataga.
Ojukwu and Quadri are alleged to have conspired and murdered Ataga on June 15, 2021, by stabbing him several times with a knife on the neck and chest.
The alleged murder took place at 19, Adewale Oshin St., Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
NAN